We take education for granted, yet in many places in the world, it’s not automatic. God bless people like Thelma. I peaked at her website and here’s an excerpt about her book:

“Dadda Come Home: The Chronicles of a Little Girl in World War II.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Lola’s Helping Hand.

An excerpt from the book:
“A loud, urgent knock on the door interrupted our breakfast. I cautiously opened the door and elderly Filipino gentleman stood at the door. “Is there a Mrs. Clark here?” he asked. Mama was right behind me. The man handed Mama a piece of paper, a cigarette wrapper with a message written on it. It was Dadda’s handwriting. The note said that Dadda was at Santo Tomas University “Dadda is alive!” I cried.”

LilPuma on
April 16th, 2008 7:24 pm

Here’s another excerpt as I read a little more there. I remember my Dad, a Marine in WWII, crying sometimes when he watched old war movies. History books don’t tell us things like this:

The Japanese invaded the Philippines three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Santiago’s family evacuated to Manila.
The trip took a week in a station wagon filled with 13 people – Clark’s brother-in-law and his family came with them. Under blackout, Clark drove with his lights off, slowly zigzagging down hilly roads in the dark.
He told his scared family, “We’ll be fine.” And he hummed while Santiago’s mother prayed aloud, “Dear Lord, don’t let any harm come to us.”
“As long as I heard my dad, as long as I knew he was there, I knew I was OK,” Santiago recalls. “All he had to do was look at me and wink.”
In Manila, they moved into an apartment furnished only with a dining table and some chairs. Her father left every day to help guard his company’s electric plant in Manila.
“Then one night, he didn’t come home,” Santiago says. “The Japanese took him.”

LilPuma on
April 16th, 2008 7:38 pm

Michele Azar — what a great story and now we know that Croatia is on the Mediterranean! Who knew?

LilPuma on
April 16th, 2008 8:01 pm

Glad to hear 48 Hours will be covering this case. Like (I think) Dana said, no one just disappears without a trace.

I hope you can help me fix one thing- I spaced on the name of our
“band” and just told you the name of the kids album, Words! For Kids.
The band’s name is Slim and Lulu, so people can go to slimandlulu.com
and take a listen.